The story

The Olympic flame reached the top of the world Thursday morning, carried to the summit of Mount Everest by climbers wearing oxygen masks to breathe in the thin air of the earth's highest point.

A 23-year-old Tibetan woman, Tsering Wangmo, carried the flame atop the peak. She was the last of five climbers -- three Tibetans and two Han Chinese -- to pass the torch to each other near the summit.

Once there, the mountaineers removed their masks so television cameras could record their faces and so they could shout and cheer their feat. Read full article »